Covid-19 / IU / television / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Still no super powers
10
Mar 21

Still no super powers

So this is day two, and I feel fine. My arm is better and I haven’t developed any supernatural abilities beyond the ones I already had. I have two. One is of very limited use and not worth talking about. The other is spectacularly useful, and would be a big hit on the old Whose Line game …

My super power involves always being able to pick the correct size container in which to store leftovers. Very useful. Never going to save the planet from marauding invaders.

This is the one I already had, and I am still waiting for my new vaccine-inspired powers to kick in. And, also, the second dose. I’m also waiting for the two weeks after that, when the magic has really happened. So five weeks. A lot of things happen in five weeks. Some of you have been in relationships that lasted less than that. I’ve watched TV shows with a shorter run. That’s half of a Kardashian wedding! Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine were married for a shorter time, too! Five weeks is less than four Scaramuccis! And I’m sure they’ll rush right by so that I can continue to be cautious, but with a bit more peace of mind.

And also some carefully controlled family visits. Looking forward to that, as most everyone is.

Meanwhile, a former student notes Utah is about to join Alaska in opening up vaccinations.

And this bit of news which will be profoundly encouraging, I’m sure.

Something else I know you’re looking forward to, the television shows. This is last night’s news show.

And the students also produced this really cool show, too.

One last normal thing … we had the opportunity to watch some racing last year in the middle of the pandemic, which is going to seem a really brazen thing, one day. But this, here, now, feels different. I said it because I felt it.

And the more and more I think about it, I wonder why. What’s the normal part and why? And why is it normal? Have we finally just begun to internalize things? That seems an inherently risky thing, doesn’t it? We could be so close to turning the tide on this thing, and all of our own choices have helped with that in some regard. We shouldn’t toss that aside just yet.

Covid-19 / memories / Tuesday / Twitter — Comments Off on Upper arm still sore
09
Mar 21

Upper arm still sore

But everything else feels just fine after the first full day of the first shot of my two-dose Covid-19 vaccination. I only notice my arm hurts when I try to elevate it, as if to more closely examine the sudden emergence of this extra thumb on my right hand. But for normal, light office stuff, all is well and good. I’d read somewhere about whether you should get this particular shot in your dominant arm or your non-dominant arm. When I asked the shot-giver which arm she wanted she, in turn, asked me if I slept on my side, and suggested the other arm.

After going to bed last night and waking up this morning, I can say that was the correct way to determine my arm selection. I did not like lying on the arm that had the sharp piercing metal poked through it. Go figure.

Also, the shot itself hurt about 11 percent more than the flu shot last fall, but the post-shot arm ache was different.

And if all of that helps you decide which arm you want, you are now … armed … with the information. Now get lined up to get that shot!

It’s a crowded day in a busy week — busiest of the semester thus far — so this is thin, yes. But, hey, it’s Tuesday.

I did get stood up in one Zoom meeting. Hey, it gave me a break from anything else for a while. And it let me make this gif.

That’s from a video I shot at the airport in Amsterdam in 2018. You can see it here.

It’s a fascinating piece of art by Maarten Baas and, being an airport, spot-on accurate. More on the Schiphol Clock, here.

And, tonight …

adventures / Covid-19 / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off on My bicep is a little sore
08
Mar 21

My bicep is a little sore

That didn’t go over at all how I’d pictured. I’d somehow imagined something big, more emotional, more celebratory. I am all of those things, and something approaching the direction of relieved, too — but it’s internalized.

A young woman named Emily gave me my first Covid vaccine dose today. She said she’s been at this eight days. She’s not counting how many people she’s seen, how many times she’s handed over the famous cards, answered the same questions.‬

‪I made sure she heard my “Thank you,” made sure she knew it was sincere.‬ It seemed the only feeble thing I could do, then and there. Sometimes you just want to give high fives to total strangers. It’s hard not to be excited about this.

I am not showing my whole card, because putting that online is somehow when the microchip gets activated. And my superhero powers haven’t kicked in yet, but you know I’m trying.

We stayed at the store a while, to make sure there were no side effects, which was interesting because you could overhear the excitement of others. It was nice to see and feel the optimism of others once again. We passed the time in one of our group chats, where I made a decent Spider-Man joke, and, later, a Hulk joke that didn’t land as well as I wanted it too. The Yankee made a terrific Sue Storm joke, though, and so it was worth it. We had no perceptible side effects in the minutes and hours after the shot, and still feel fine. But my arm is a little tender right at the needle spot. Small price to pay, of course.

So, one down, and come on, end of March, at which time all of those feelings will be externalized, and there will be much relief expressed in many ways — while carefully making sure to continue observing the appropriate safety measures.

Honestly, if it’s a peace-of-mind thing at first, then it can be a peace-of-mind thing for a while.

We’re charting a snow pile at the local box store. This is from Saturday, our fourth week of observation. The weather has been delightfully mild this past week, and that’s reduced this mound to a pile of dirt and debris.

This is that same pile, on Valentine’s Day, after the first snow that mattered.

Just a few days after that photo was taken we got a substantial snow event, and so this was our pile on February 21st.

And, last week, on February 28th, when you could see some obvious decline.

May it all be gone, and soon.

And the weekend helped. Saturday I stood in the shade on one side of the house and had a bit of a chill, but I stood on the other side of the house, in the sun, cleaning windows, and it felt rather grand. Yesterday it was almost t-shirt weather. So, hoping to encourage the onset of, ya know, spring, I wore a t-shirt. This was a Christmas present. Pretty awesome, right?

And it is still, mostly, autobiographical.

The cats are doing well. Phoebe has just about scratched herself out. She had a big weekend full of getting into places she shouldn’t, and being allowed in places we don’t usually let the cats explore.

That’s pretty much every day for Poseidon, though. He’s constantly everywhere. It’s really cute, in retrospect, but not so much when you’re constantly having to jockey against him and fight for position.

But it’s cute.

Friday / IU / television / video — Comments Off on Sports videos and rambling notes containing positive signs
05
Mar 21

Sports videos and rambling notes containing positive signs

Two sports shows form last night. Here’s the highlights.

And here’s all the talk about sportsball in the form of baseball.

And, this morning, it was back in the studio again first thing. The handful of Thursdays were we have shows late into the evenings followed immediately by Friday morning shows are reminders that I am not in my early 20s anymore. It isn’t that it is hard, or that a terrible amount is expected of me, but that I am tired. And, look, I’m not even performing in any of these shows, obviously, as they are entirely student productions. But I’m there, trying to lend a hand or get in the way, or provide moral support, or slow things down or speed things up or give notes and what not. Some days the hours get to me, is all. Small price to pay, to watch these nice people work on their craft and start to realize their dreams.

I had to give two studio tours today. That’s something I haven’t done in a year. It’ll all be a function of another new project coming to life. Just another sign, as we tried to explore a little bit the other day, of things coming back to something approaching normal.

They are holding graduation in person this term. That was announced a week or so ago. Family and friends will have to watch a university-produced program, unfortunately, but the students will get the real pomp and circumstance, which is great progress. The word has been passed out that the fall will be more in-person. What it means in practice is still being studied, but I’m guessing the goal is to make 2021 feel a lot more like 2019 than 2020. You don’t sell it that way. It seems a reasonable ambition and realistically feasible.

The show this morning, which isn’t online yet, brought in a guy offering you some workout tips you can do at home, because you’re not going to the gym just yet. I noticed they didn’t frame it as “Get that spring break bod” because our students don’t get a break this year — a concession to the virus and realities of traveling and so on. But they are going to get to watch a basketball tournament in a few days. It’s looking like their men’s team won’t be in the tournament, so it’s definitely a take-your-gains-where-you-can-get-them era.

Instagram / IU / Thursday — Comments Off on Today in a flash
04
Mar 21

Today in a flash

That was a pretty good look today.

The day started with a Zoom. I am trying to facilitate a new podcast that one element of the university is keen to produce. Happy to help. They are well and truly into the earnest brainstorming phase right now. And so there was a large Zoom today. There will be another this week. And I started training their producer this evening. In between those two things was another Zoom and then some show watching and some script writing and emailing and show producing and it felt like a full and normal day, really.

Best part of the day was that pocket square, though. That was definitely a move.

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